Are you glad the election season is over? The ads are so negative. The candidates don’t talk about their plans if elected but rather how terrible a person their opponent is. This tendency to criticize goes back to Cain and Abel. When you look at the Bible we find that Jeremiah was criticized in his role as prophet. Jesus himself was criticized in fulfilling his identity as the Word of God. Two lessons to draw from this: first, if Jesus was criticized you should not be surprised that you are criticized. Since you’re going to be criticized anyway you might as well do the right thing no matter what. Second lesson: we can reverse the cycle of criticism by accentuating the positive, eliminating the negative.